February
07, was the departure of Abouna
Andrawis El Samueli. May his
intercessions be with us all. I
don't know if anyone has seen
the movie depicting his story,
but it's really good! I couldn't
find his story online anywhere
except from his facebook group.
Here it is:

A 20th century Coptic saint,
Father Andrawis the Samuelite
(or El-Samueli, i.e., of St.
Samuel's Coptic Orthodox
Monastery in Egypt) was born at
Algafdon village, Alfashn, Beni
Suef governorate, Egypt, in the
year 1887.

The name of Fr. Andrawis was "Youssef
Khaleel Ibrahim", and he
related, according to what his
parents told him, that he lost
sight when he was three years
old.

When he was thirteen years old,
he headed to the village "El
Zawarah" where the residence of
the monastery of St. Samuel is
located.

There he was well received by
the church instructor, and he
acquired and learned church
rituals, chants and hymns at the
hands one of the monks named
"Ibrahim El Fayoumy". He
completed his learning in less
than ten years!

He was in charge of the hardest
tasks to be done at the
monastery, he had to raise water
from the monastery well to fill
a very large basin everyday
manually.

Some people saw scorpions beside
him but causing no harm, they
discovered a serpent sleeping on
his shoulder as if they were
friends.

He stayed alone in the monastery
for four months living on dry
bread, and salty water. He used
to bless people saying: "May God
be with you, not against you".

Fr. Andrawis died on February 7,
1988, he lived about 75 years as
a monk, but is still performing
miracles even after his
departure.